


Kakashi is a dog person... Right?

by bamfiruka



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cute Iruka, Cute Kakashi, Fluff, Iruka is confused, M/M, hazel i blame you for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 06:40:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6970342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamfiruka/pseuds/bamfiruka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone who knows anything about Hatake Kakashi knows he’s a dog person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kakashi is a dog person... Right?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HazelBeka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HazelBeka/gifts).



Everyone who knows anything about Hatake Kakashi knows he’s a dog person.

Not only were the Hatake Clan known for their summons as well as their lightning chakra, but Kakashi had been seen with a veritable horde of dogs, both on and off the battlefield, multiple times over the years. Those who had been in ANBU with him knew he had a _dog_ mask. He was infamous for clashing with the Inuzuka Clan over shared territory, and he himself could track a scent just like one of his summons.

Needless to say, all of this makes Iruka _very_ surprised when he enters the Hatake Clan Compound for the first time. Because while there are a _lot_ of animals around, none of them are dogs.

Kakashi picks up an orange tom from where he’s sitting on the kitchen bench, ignoring how the cat claws at his arm as he deposits the fur ball on the ground.

“I don’t normally let the cats inside, but since it’s snowing I opened up part of the house,” Kakashi remarks casually, like it’s perfectly normal to have approximately thirty cats sprawled throughout his kitchen. “They’re all usually pretty good about not pissing inside, so the only problems that I have with it are when the dogs come in here and complain about them all.”

“Alright,” Iruka says faintly. When Kakashi had invited him over to the Compound, this was not what he’d been expecting.

Kakashi clears the rest of the counter of cats, but since walking in the number of them inside the room seems to have multiplied. Several of them start yowling, and a fight breaks out near the door. Iruka can see now that one of the window panes near the ground has been removed, allowing for easy access for the cats.

Kakashi sets down the large pack he had brought with him, and it thuds as it lands against the counter. The yowls get louder, and _more_ cats come through the small window opening. Iruka’s got cats sitting on his feet. There are cats on the counter again. There are cats _everywhere._

“Since when do you own a hundred cats?” Iruka blurts, too overwhelmed by the sheer ridiculousness of his situation to put together anything else.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I _own_ them, as such,” Kakashi says. He opens his pack, and Iruka sees what’s inside – it’s just cat food. The entirety of it. Kakashi opens the cupboard under the bench and pulls out the biggest pet food bowl Iruka’s seen in his entire life. “They just sort of hang out here. And I didn’t really mean to do it in the first place, since I knew the dogs wouldn’t like them. But I mean, I have all this acreage, and there are too many cats on the streets, so I decided I’d just… bring them here. And feed them. And pay their vet bills.” He frowns at that. “They’re mostly okay with each other, except for the young toms before I desex them. That’s the only reason I have a hundred cats instead of a thousand, but a few of them manage anyway, or I miss some of them.”

He nods towards the boxes that Iruka had thought were there just for packing. Curious, he moves towards them, only to find more cats inside. Except instead of fully grown cats, they’re just kittens. The mother cat looks up at him and hisses slightly before going back to licking one of her kitten’s heads. They’re _adorable_.

Kakashi is busy cracking cat food into the massive food bowls that he’d brought out, skilfully fending off most of the cats on the counter as they try to get some of the food. Cats are still coming through the open window, and Iruka had been joking when he’d said a _hundred_ cats.

He carefully makes his way back over to Kakashi and starts opening cat food tins alongside him, pushing away cats who are trying to get a bite, but not succeeding as well as Kakashi is. With both of them working, it’s faster, and Kakashi takes the bowls and puts them in various corners of the room, letting the cats flow towards them. With all of the cats occupied, Kakashi opens another cupboard and pulls out two cat carriers.

“The litters from last year are getting older, but I still like to have Hana check up on them,” Kakashi says, grabbing some small cat bowls and putting cat food into those before putting them inside the carriers. “But I only I have two hands, so you can help as well!” He smiles at Iruka, and Iruka can’t help but smile back. As unexpected as all of this is, he has to admit that it’s charming to see Kakashi like this.

“So you’re taking advantage of my helpful nature?” Iruka teases. Kakashi scoops up the orange tom that had clawed him earlier and deposits him inside one of the carriers.

“Maa, Iruka, I would never.” Kakashi winks at him. “But now that you’re here, you’re not going to leave me to carry all of these by myself, are you?” He pulls another two carriers out and grabs a grey cat from the ground.

“I suppose I can help,” Iruka replies, trying not to laugh. Kakashi manages to get another grey cat into the third carrier and then gives the last, empty one to Iruka. Iruka follows him over to the boxes on the ground, and feels his heart melt slightly as Kakashi picks up two of the kittens.

“What?” Kakashi asks, raising an eyebrow. Iruka just wishes he had a camera so he could capture the image of Kakashi with a kitten crawling up his vest and another chewing on his sleeve; for blackmail purposes, of course. Not because he finds it endearing. Not at all.

“Nothing,” Iruka says. He holds open the cat carrier and Kakashi puts the four kittens and the mother cat inside, fending off claws and teeth. “I just thought you were more of a dog person, that’s all.”

Kakashi laughs. “What, I can’t be both?”

Iruka looks at him, confidently carrying two cat carriers and on his way to the vet. “Well. I suppose you can be.”

Iruka picks up his two carriers and follows Kakashi out the door and through the thick wards around the Compound. When he looks back over his shoulder, the cats are beginning to meander out of the kitchen, fed for the time being. Frowning, he turned back to Kakashi. 

“Is _this_ why you’re budgeting to make our rent? Even when I tried to tell you that we lived together now, so you should talk to me about your finances? You’re spending it all on cat food?”

Kakashi looks at him out of the side of his eye. “Why do you think I brought you here? It’s easier to show rather than tell, after all.” While Iruka digests that, he sighs. “But yes. I have to keep some cash in reserve for emergency vet bills, after all. Hana likes me, but she doesn’t like me enough to discount her vet services.”

One of the cats that Kakashi is carrying meows to underscore his point.

“I can’t have them just living off the wildlife,” Kakashi reasons. “And what am I meant to do at this point? Stop feeding them all?”

It dawns on Iruka that his family might have just gotten bigger by more than the few individuals he was expecting when he and Kakashi had got together.

To Kakashi’s amusement, he starts laughing. “I suppose not. But I can’t believe that no one knows about this! How do you keep your cat food purchases quiet?”

“I’m fairly certain that I fund about half of the pet stores in Konoha,” Kakashi grumbles. “They direct deliver. I hope you’re ready for boxes of cat food to start showing up on your doorstep.”

This just makes Iruka laugh harder.

**Author's Note:**

> So instead of studying like I should be, I wrote this instead. This is for Hazel - thank you for putting up with the copious angst that I'm putting you through :)


End file.
